I'd love to be able to help you out, but needless to say I can't control my dog all the time, but she has been doing better. Mark caught her tearing up around the tree and called her and said "leave it", (knock on wood!) and so far she has! We started leaving her in the house the other day, it was only 1/2 hour, but she didn't tear anything up, and was laying in front of the door when we came home. I don't know how she will do for a longer period of time!
I hope you can get things under control so you don't have to crate him. Good Luck!~Anna